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Friday, May 8, 2015

"Fears of Jade Helm overlap heavily with existing concerns on the right, including general distrust of the Obama administration ..." Damned fools.

...................................................................................................................................................................COMMENTS:* Dear Texas, we've thought it over and decided that if you want to secede, it's perfectly OK with us. But you have to take Louisiana with you. Sincerely, Sane folk.* It's Texas. It's part of the "South". No one's really surprised. 'Ignorance and Bigotry". . .I think that's the motto emblazoned on the Confederate flag, right?* Proof positive of the stupidity of Texans if they believe this Federal takeover BS. Why would the Feds need to do that? Texas has been in the USA since allowed to rejoin in 1870, so is already under Federal control. Duh! These morons are so blinded by their hatred of our President they willfully lap up whatever buffoonery they hear on YouTube or AM radio. Absolute stupidity. You notice that Utah and the southern part of California are also red but you don't hear any of the same stupidity coming from those state. News that happens here is heard throughout the world, and foreigners must be shaking their heads when they hear about some of the embarrassing idiots (including senators, congressmen, and a governor) we have over here.* The world is watching and is very concerned. People like these conspirator theory screwballs are what is making people everywhere worry about the the decline of common sense in some Americans and the power they seem to hold over politicians. Of course Congress does very little to impress us with their inactivity and hatred towards their leader, President Obama. Come on folks...the world is a dangerous place. There is much to do to eliminate evil, and you are not making it any easier or safer.* Texas, The LOON Star State, land of revisionist history classes and fantasy textbooks. I also read today that they have an 'abstinence only' high school which is experiencing and epidemic of chlamydia. Let them secede. Texas is the intellectual sewer of the USA. * They also collect more money from the Federal government than they pay out.
...................................................................................................................................................................How Obama’s hostile takeover of the American Southwest (a.k.a. Jade Helm) will impact 2016
By Philip Bump, May 6, 2015

Like many of the rational residents of the United States, we have been amused to watch the emergence of the conspiracy theory known as Jade Helm 15. If you are one of the rational residents of the country but have not heard of Jade Helm, it is the sweeping theory that an upcoming eight-week military exercise stretching across the Southwest is actually a secret plot by the Obama administration to seize land / oust traitors / otherwise be evil. If you are one of the irrational residents of the United States, you are not reading this because the tin foil hat slipped over your eyes and / or you are too busy eating Vietnam-era MREs.

And the moment being what it is, this is now part of the 2016 election.

Jade Helm (the military exercise) is a real thing. In press releases, it's called "routine training," but on a grand scale. Why so big? "The diverse terrain in these states," the press release reads, "replicates areas Special Operations Soldiers regularly find themselves operating in overseas." The map below shows the location of parts of the exercise, with Utah and Texas identified as "hostile."

Jade Helm (the conspiracy theory) centers on that "hostile" designation. A full background is here, but a quick outline is in order. One of the first fleshed-out conspiracy arguments appeared at All News Pipeline in March. The idea there was that this was an American response to the imminent start of World War III, since "drills are always the way that operations are designed to position men and materials ahead of an operation." It is suggested that actually they're going to murder gun owners after having collected their GPS coordinates, and something about attacking churches. (If you don't want to read the story, it is read out loud here for some reason.) Since then, various other things have been looped in, including that Walmart stores have been closed at night so that tunnels could be dug underneath them. Or ... something.

The theory above worked its way over to Infowars.com, the conspiracy site that somehow nudged its way into some semblance of respectability in conservative circles, perhaps in part thanks to regular inclusion in round-ups at The Drudge Report. Fears of Jade Helm overlap heavily with existing concerns on the right, including general distrust of the Obama administration and past comments about homegrown terrorists.

Interest peaked when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) late last month ordered the Texas State Guard to monitor the exercises. Bloomberg's Dave Weigel asked presidential candidate Ted Cruz about it, with the Texas senator replying that he could "understand" why people were worried about it. (Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, who's built a fan base in part on his willingness to explore such topics, said something similar this week.) Cruz also indicated that he had asked the Pentagon to assuage his concerns and came away satisfied.

On Tuesday, former Texas governor and likely 2016 candidate Rick Perry criticized Abbott, his former No. 2. "It’s OK to question your government. I do it on a regular basis," he told the Dallas Morning News. "But the military is something else. Our military is quite trustworthy. The civilian leadership -- you can always question that, but not the men and women in uniform."

Or so they thought. The military is obviously annoyed by the response and having to answer questions like one from a Utah Fox station: "The 'hostile' label was part of the exercise design. It is fictional and is not intended to represent any belief that the state of Utah is hostile." Well, at least the government didn't used to consider Utah hostile.

But what's a politician to do? Politics is the art of balancing the needs and concerns of various constituencies. There's a real thread of concern among conservative voters about an unprecedented action in their area. That concern has been given oxygen by the bellows of Infowars and now becomes something to be addressed. The trick with conspiracy theories is that dismissing them often only reinforces them, so Abbott decided to walk a middle line. Reality is one thing; politics is another.

It's hard to believe that this will continue to roil until August, when the exercises are scheduled to end; by the time 2016 voting rolls around, this will be the 300th of 2.6 million footnotes to the campaign. At that point, though, many of the primary contests will have been decided, given that the Southwestern State of Obamaland will be under the secure control of the Armies of the Democratic Party.